Rabobank Nederland

At Rabobank Nederland, Citrix has played a key role in optimizing workplace efficiency since the early 1990s. The company’s Citrix deployment has evolved toward an ambitious virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) solution powered by Citrix XenDesktop, with Citrix XenMobile enabling the implementation of a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) environment. Once these technologies were in place, however, Rabobank began to recognize the limitations of relying on traditional support channels such as phone and email. By turning to a Citrix Technical Relationship Manager for dedicated support on demand, the company gets the right information from the right Citrix resource as quickly as possible, accelerating time to market while enabling proactive planning for long-term success.

Rabobank Nederland is a multinational banking and financial services company headquartered in Utrecht, the Netherlands. A global leader in food and agricultural financing, Rabobank Nederland employs more than 35,000 people, placing it among the largest financial institutions in the world. Citrix technology has played a key role at Rabobank for more than two decades, beginning with Citrix WinFrame in the early 1990s to keep teleworkers and road warriors connected with the company’s central operations. In recent years, however, the company’s Citrix deployment has evolved toward an ambitious VDI-only solution powered by Citrix XenDesktop, with Citrix NetScaler application delivery controller serving as a security boundary for users accessing the network from outside the company’s headquarters.

The Challenge: Managing a complex environment with traditional phone and email support

As the company expanded its deployment of Citrix technology—including the implementation of Citrix XenMobile to secure mobile devices and enable a BYOD environment—Rabobank team members began to recognize the need for a higher level of technical support. “The standard support offering from Citrix served us well for years,” says Hans Prins, product manager at Rabobank Nederland. “From time to time, however, we ran into technical issues that were difficult to address by email or phone. So we started exploring the possibility of engaging with a Citrix Technical Relationship Manager.”

The Solution: Turning to a single point of contact for knowledgeable assistance on demand

A Citrix Technical Relationship Manager (TRM) is a dedicated, highly trained individual who serves as a single point of contact for proactive support, education and advocacy on behalf of a company such as Rabobank. The TRM is tasked with learning all about an organization’s unique environment, tailoring his or her advice to suit the requirements at hand—even making a monthly onsite visit to help ensure the best possible communication and collaboration.

“Right now, we’re experiencing some issues with our Wi-Fi network disconnecting from VDI workstations,” says Prins. “It’s a complex, difficult problem because it requires a deep understanding of the various routing mechanisms in our network. Fortunately, our Citrix TRM is completely up to speed on the issue, so we don’t need to keep calling in and explaining it to different people. Now it’s just part of an ongoing conversation with one person who’s always on the same page.”

Key Benefits

Getting the right information from the right people, right on time

The Citrix TRM helps Rabobank avoid the time-consuming process of getting technical issues in front of the appropriate audience. “When we have instant access to someone who’s already familiar with our technology roadmap, who understands how all the components of our environment work together, we can get right to the heart of the problem in far less time,” says Prins. “And since our TRM knows the Citrix organization so well, he can connect us immediately to the right resource for whatever help we might need.”

Accelerating time to market by delivering anytime, anywhere access to business applications

Rabobank embraces the VDI and BYOD models because users need to have anytime, anywhere access to a wide range of business applications, no matter what device they happen to be using. “When we encounter a technical issue in our VDI environment, that can have a big impact on productivity and ultimately time to market because virtual desktops are becoming such a huge part of how we do day-to-day business,” says Prins. “The Citrix TRM helps us keep such events to an absolute minimum.”

Enabling proactive planning for long-term success

In addition to the Citrix TRM, Rabobank gains a great deal of insight from its Citrix account manager, who helps reinforce the TRM’s work by developing a long-term technical support plan. “In our business, we can’t afford to be excessively reactive, whether we’re responding to a technical issue, enhancing the security of our environment or just working to stay ahead of the competition,” says Prins. “Proactive planning is key to our ongoing success. And our Citrix team is always helping us think about what’s coming down the road.”

Looking Ahead

With the development and expansion of the VDI environment at Rabobank, Prins and his team can realize an extremely ambitious vision for creating a next-generation workplace. “By 2016, we want every single employee to be working on a virtual desktop,” he says. “That means rolling out our VDI environment to 35,000 people. As we make that vision a reality, we expect Citrix technology—always backed by the expertise of our TRM—to be there every step of the way.”

When we have instant access to someone who’s already familiar with our technology roadmap, who understands how all the components of our environment work together, we can get right to the heart of the problem in far less time.